The hospital room isn't nearly as heavily guarded as Yao wished it would be. There was just one officer sitting there; he was playing on his smart phone, sitting in a chair. As Yao approached, the cop looked up to nod at him before returning to his game and Yao couldn't help the eye roll he gave as he walked in the door, adjusting the messenger bag on his shoulder.

Peter and Wendy Micnat were sharing a room, their mother seated in a chair between the beds as she quietly read a paperback novel. Her hands were shaking, and her eyes were swollen and red, but her smile was bright when she saw the Detective. Wendy lay asleep in her bed, curled beneath the blankets in a tight ball, but Peter was awake. He looked up from his comic book to watch Yao warily as the man greeted his mother amiably and then turned to him.

"Hello Peter," Yao smiled, extending a hand in greeting, "My name is Detective Wang. I've been working on your case."

"You've done a great job so far." Was Peter's sarcastic retort.

"Peter!" Came the admonishment from his mother and step-father, who'd holed himself up in the corner of the room by the window. A cot was laid out for him, surrounded by various papers and folders that looked like business reports-business men never truly do stop working it seems. Apparently the housekeeper had been here too, but there was no sign of her now.

"Its fine, its fine, if anything a little sass means your son is strong," Yao said gently, grinning sheepishly at Peter, "In all honesty you're right, you and your sister saved yourselves."

Peter said nothing, made no expression or showed any hint of approval or disapproval to Yao's statement. In fact he glanced back to his comic book like it was the only thing truly on his mind.

"Peter, I'll be brief, I know the last thing you want to do is think about recent events but it's important." Yao pulled out his badge, stashed between the leather folds was the picture of Matthew Williams, "You're home safe but there's another boy we need to look for. I think you may have been in captivity with him?"

Peter studied the photo for a good few minutes before nodding once, "That's Mattie, he's really nice. He's really quiet too."

Yao released a breath he wasn't even aware he'd been holding. Matthew was still alive, that was reason enough to celebrate.

"Was there anyone else with you by the time you escaped?" He couldn't help but ask, and at Peter's nod he felt that relief crumble into dread.

"Lovino, Ivan, and Ludwig," Peter said, "They've all been there longer than we were."

Yao nodded, swallowing, "If I brought a collection of photos with the faces of missing kids on them, do you think you could show them to me?"

Peter shrugged, "I guess? That picture of Mattie isn't all that great if those other pictures are anything like it though."

"Admittedly it's a few years old with some age-progression added," Yao said, "But it's the best we have at the moment."

"Why are you only looking for Mattie?" Peter wondered.

"Well to be honest we weren't aware of just how many people were kidnapped along with you two." Yao said, "We managed to connect your cases and now apparently I now have to connect three more."

"They've been there a long time," Peter said, "I think Lovino's been there the longest."

"Could you guess his age?"

"Old." Peter said, and with the lack of facial expression Yao bit back a snort, "Not as old as you but he could pass for a grown up if he wanted to."

That didn't sound good, who knew how long that kid had before his captors decided he was dead weight? Why even keep a someone around that long anyway?

"What about the other two?"

"Ivan's the same age as Mattie, and Ludwig is younger than them but older than me. Wendy was the youngest."

"And the only girl," Yao observed.

Peter's expression clouded at that, "Yeah."

"Could you tell me a little bit about what happened while you were kidnapped?" Yao asked, "I know it was hard for you earlier but the more details I have to work with the faster I can get to the others before they have to save themselves too."

Peter blanched at the request, but his mother squeezed his arm and at her reassuring nod he took a steadying breath and looked Detective Yao in the eye.

"Wendy and I were walking home from school when a car pulled up and the people inside tried talking to us. When we tried to leave they followed us and started chasing us." He could still remember it clearly, the sight of getting chased down as he desperately tried to run away-Grandpa dashing after them on foot especially remained burned in his brain. It would probably haunt his nightmares for years to come.

Yao was scribbling notes down in a small legal pad he'd extracted from his bag, nodding along as Peter spoke.

"When they caught up to us, they put us in the trunk and I don't know where we went after that." Peter continued, trying to ignore the sudden burn behind his eyes and in his nose. He was scared to look at his mom, whose grip had strengthened to an almost possessive hold.

Yao nodded, looking up and smiling gently, "What happened when you were taken out of the car?"

"We were at his house," Peter said, "And there was a party or something going on."

"Who was at the party?"

"Older people, probably like your age."

"So old… as… dirt." Yao said as he scribbled along his pad, smiling when he earned a quiet snort from Peter. His mother chuckled lightly, rubbing her sons arm in encouragement.

"So did they want you to participate in the party?" Yao asked, "Or did they do anything once they got inside?"

"They took us to the basement and locked us in there. We tried to scream for help but no one could hear us over the music." Peter said, "We were down there by ourselves for a long time until Mattie brought us food."

"By himself?"

"No, he was with one of those three guys. But Mattie got to stay with us while we ate. We weren't allowed out of the basement until the next morning."

"What happened the next morning?"

"Breakfast." Peter wanted to laugh at how simple it had seemed back then. Just behave and you get food and you get to stay together. Nothing else to worry about, he had thought he could protect his sister back then. Thought he could rescue the both of them if he just waited for the right moment to escape.

"They'd bring us up for meals sometimes and they left us alone for the most part for a while." Peter said, bringing his head downward to stare into his lap, "They said as long as we behaved we'd be okay."

"And did you behave?" Yao wondered, sensing a dark turn to the story. Peter's lips pressed together in a thin line and he pulled his arms in towards himself, hunching over almost into a ball while his mother cooed reassurances at him.

"It was my fault." Peter's voice was barely a whisper, "I thought we could make a run for it once but they still grabbed us and… and…"

Yao sighed, fearing what was coming. He set the notepad aside and leaned forward in his chair, "Peter nothing that happened was your fault. You reacted how anyone would react in that situation. In fact, grown men have fared worse in those kinds of situations but you've proven you are a strong and brave young boy."

Peter shook his head, sniffling and when he breathed it was shallow like he was on the verge of tears.

"Sweetie, what happened?" His mother coaxed, "The Detective needs to know."

"Whatever they did, it's not your fault." Yao repeated.

Peter sniffled again and his mother handed him a tissue. He blew into it, the loudest noise in the room, and swallowed, looking sick, "I thought maybe they were gonna beat us up or something but… instead they took us into the bedroom and-"

"Victorrie you don't have to make him." Mr. Micnat suddenly said, looking pained.

"-made us watch."

That stopped the room, everyone currently awake turning to frown at Peter.

"Who did you watch?" Yao asked.

Peter began to look very uncomfortable, "There was a man and Mattie, and he started hitting him and… and then…" He looked at his mother pleadingly, "I don't wanna say it."

"You don't have to, I think we can figure it out." His step-father said, coming to stand by the foot of his bed.

"Peter, I think we should take a break from your story." Yao said, turning to rifle through his bag, "But there's one more thing I want you to do before I let you get some more rest, okay?"

"Okay."

Yao gently set a large dark binder down in Peter's lap, opening it to reveal dozens of photos of different people. Each one looked like a mug shot, and beneath each photo there were names and descriptions scribbled on labels.

"This is a book of different people wanted for certain crimes around the country. If you can just look through it, maybe you'll see the men that did this."

Peter nodded slowly, thumbing through the plastic pages filled with pictures. His eyes scanned everything carefully, investigating every face for a glimpse of his captors. He was almost through the book when he pointed to one near the back at the top of a page.

"There." He said, "That's one of them."

The man was older, indeed perhaps Yao's age or even slightly older. He had auburn hair and scruffy stubble along his jaw. He was staring at the camera with the same expressionless face as the other photos but there was this glimmer in his eyes, like there was a fire burning in them.

The name below his photo was Julius Vargas.

Two got posted at the same time so make sure you didn't skip one!